Tar Sands

[GliderGuider]

The tar sands shown in these photographs make me think of a cancer tumor erupting through my skin. Horrifying in its own right, it is just a portent of the more final devastation that is now inexorably under way throughout my body.

As the metastatic fever rises and parts of the organism begin to die, those of us who see the dissolution for what it is face the most important question of our lives. How will we live out our remaining time here, in the failing body of Mother Earth?


Canada’s shocking oilsands operation

[PATRICK]

1. Some of it caught fire

and they couldn't put it out. Already worse. Had to evacuate a whole town.

[chervilant]

2. This:

I was drawn to photographing the pipeline because I feel as though there is little public awareness that, if built, the Keystone XL will make avoiding catastrophic climate change much harder.

And, now, these macabre, yet strangely evocative, pictures of the tar sands.

Big storm here woke me. I'm glad I came to DU and got to see this. I no longer think in terms of avoiding climate change. Like you, I am prepared to live out the remainder of my life in a rural, incredible environment

However, I'm still trying to get past my grieving for our younglings -- which I perceive as a vestigial fear of death. Our species is both awesome and abysmal.


I find the intense denial of so many of us rather poignant...

[GliderGuider]

3. Symptoms

Tar sands, fracking, mountaintop removal and open-pit mining, spreading extinctions, dying oceans, Syrian refugees, Indian heat-stroke victims, floods and wildfires, the EU vs. Greece, the Chinese economy, Fukushima, Ferguson, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, melting ice caps, Indonesian palm-oil plantations, Goldman Sachs, Martin Shkreli, Vladimir Putin, Bernie Sanders, ISIS and the NSA.

Each in its own way is a symptom of the blossoming carcinoma.

[Duppers]

4. Bernie belongs in that mix?

I see him as chemo instead of part of the cancer.


And am I misunderstanding you (being too literal) or in your OP did you allude to having cancer in your own body? If so, I'm very sorry.

[GliderGuider]

5. My reference to cancer was metaphorical.

I said it that way because I consider myself to be part of the body of the planet. If Gaia has cancer, so do I.

Most people on DU won't get my inclusion of Bernie. I consider the populism that he represents on the left, along with Trump's right-wing populism, to be symptoms of the underlying disease. Bernie is a kinder, gentler symptom, but even his flourishing won't stop the disease.

It's too far along now - there are now 7.4 billion cancer cells on the planet. Each one is leaking its particular metabolic toxin into the body of the Mother. Each one is dreaming of being bigger and better, and shedding little cancer cells that will have a chance at a better, more toxic life than their parents.

Nobody can be immune, because we are the vector.

[GliderGuider]

6. Re: The cancer metaphor

Despite my use of this metaphor yesterday, I don't really like to pathologize collective human behavior. It's not a pathway to understanding - it's just a judgement. I've worked hard for the past few years to get past it.

My preferred approach falls somewhere between a Taoist "Que sera, sera" and a Martian anthropologist. I find much more satisfaction in seeing our civilization-building behavior in terms of self-organizing complex adaptive systems. Such systems tend to grow in complexity, scale and degree of organization as they process greater energy flows. They also tend to encourage psychopathy in the upper echelons of their control structure.

On the other hand, I still have a strong emotional reaction when I'm confronted with visual evidence of the degree of ugliness that human beings can produce, tolerate and even celebrate. That's when judgement arises, as it did here. When I saw these photographs of the incomprehensible violence we are inflicting on the Earth in our apparently insatiable lust for ever more growth-fueling energy, I lost my equanimity in a whirlwind of anger.

I'm feeling much calmer this morning, so the Martian anthropologist is back in the house.